Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.

Tap As You’ve Never Seen it Before

You’ve never seen tap quite like what Michelle Dorrance and her nine-member company Dorrance Dance offer. For “The Blues Project” Dorrance has collaborated with musician-singer Toshi Reagon and Reagon’s five member band BIGLovely, creating a 65-minute interplay of sound and body.

Through a nonstop series of solos, small group and large group dances Dorrance and her co-choreographers Derick K. Grant and Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards take us from African-inspired movement to Lindy Hop to three improvised, hushed solo sections – including one by Dorrance herself – in which the individual dancers respond to Reagon’s soulful guitar strumming.

Reagon’s score is a mix of pure instrumentals and songs featuring Reagon’s sweet, deeply emotional voice. Per the program’s title, many of songs are Reagon’s take on the blues, intermingled with exuberant compositions that allow the dancers to let loose with flailing arms, rapid-fire turns and high-flying jumps.

The dancers are clad in ‘50’s style dresses (for the women) and vests (for the men), which gives the show a retro air. But the choreography and the dramatic lighting convey a definite contemporary sensibility. The portable dance floor does far more than magnify the sound of the tapping; at several points the surface allows the dancers to slide and glide as if on an ice rink.

And what dancers! Besides Dorrance, whose loose, lanky style hearkens back to previous generations of tap dancers, the troupe is remarkably well rounded and charismatic. Each performer has a distinctive style and yet they all blend seamlessly together in the buoyant ensemble sections.

As this weekend’s show demonstrate par excellence, Michelle Dorrance is reinventing tap. “The Blues Project” is a wonderful appetizer and leaves you wanting much, much more of her unique vision of this uniquely American dance form.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.